So now all NGOs are equal in credibility, status and relevance…
timesofmalta.com reported this afternoon:
NGOs dismayed at Falzon’s removal
That was the heading. I read on, expecting to find, say, Din L-Art Helwa or similar. Instead I found:
Five environmental organisations have expressed their dismay at the termination of architect Joe Falzon’s tenure as MEPA auditor.
Ramblers, Flimkien Ghal Ambject Ahjar, Friends of the Earth, Graffitti and the Malta Organic Agriculture Movement said: (…)
I don’t like using the expression at all, but this time I feel I must. FFS. When did the Ramblers’ Association and Graffiti become environmental organisations and, more to the point, NGOs?
Flimkien Ghal Ambjent Ahjar! U halluna, tridux? A group of dilettanti run by a woman who had me and others beating our brains out in despair because she INSISTED that Sliema has baroque-era houses, and then went on to produce an old map of the military fort on Tigne point to prove that Sliema was inhabited in the 18th century. She had no idea that forts contained garrisons, and mistook them for the baroque-era tal-pepe houses.
Unbelievable.
What a country, and what a press. You set up “an NGO”, you go around making scenes and – most importantly – giving a leg-up to Joseph Muscat, and nobody sees fit to question either your credibility or your credentials. Or for that matter, your motives.
The Times didn’t even bother to point out to its readers that the Malta Organic Agriculture Movement is led by by Mario Salerno, Labour Mayor of St Paul’s Bay and former Labour mayor of Hal Kirkop. Don’t they think that’s a pertinent detail?
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Haha, my feelings exactly.
Set up an “ghaqda dilettanti tat-trabokk”, say what you have to say, and The Times will willingly refer to you as an NGO.
And Graffitti, FFS yet again!
Bunch of idealistic hippies and loony lefties, of about as much consequence as a persistent mosquito.
And my feelings exactly.
These are only Labour-leaning, minute, but noisy entities.
Unfortunately they have easy access to the media, who seem to take them seriously. And so do a handful of commentators, such as those on the comments board of the timesonline.
They also have all the time in the world, because they are usually run by retired persons.
They are there to interfere politically into matters with an intent to embarass the authorities and the government, but in some cases, such as the Ramblers, they find no problem to interfere with private properties and private rights.
The truth is that the public is not stupid. Some of these “entities” such as the Ramblers started as an attractive idea, but their leadership has driven members away.
The public does not like to be driven by campaigns of hate and envy, with a hidden political agenda.
True, but if one notices the way The Times came out first with the biased story and then took a step back when it became clear that dear Joseph knew about the changes.
More importantly, it had to also state that Mr Falzon has been in his post for at least 7years. Now how many Nationalist supporters will be in such position if Joseph’s Labour ever get to power?
But the story doesnt stop here. Out comes the usual band of leftist whiners with all sorts of accusations and The Times gives them the prominence as if God was speaking. I doubt if all of these 5 ‘ NGO’s ‘ have more than 50 people in their membership put together.
Oh, and on a parallel note, today’s The Times’ edition was less sensational and confrontational than lately.
Is it because Kurt Sansone had no story in today’s edition? Or is The Times perhaps coming to its senses? Loved the picture of Franco Debono – looked like he was about to go for a bout of cock-fighting in Ghaxaq.
Graffiti? What a bunch of nerds. Where are these lions of freedom now – can’t see or hear them anymore.
Their bedfellows the Russians and Chinese are allowing the slaughter of so many innocent Syrians with their veto.
Come on, Graffiti, pluck up some courage and show us your mettle. Come out with your placards protesting against your leftist friends the same way you are so quick to come out protesting against the west and the US and all others.
Anthony II, for fairness’ sake, Graffitti have criticised China several times on human rights issue (as well as Joseph Muscat on immigration).
Here’s just an example after a quick search: http://www.movimentgraffitti.org/search.php?query=china&action=results
FAA is not an environmental organisation. When there is a dispute involving development they support one side to the detriment of the other.
In the case of the St. Julians Villa Frieres development, the real issue was that some flats were going to have their windows blocked by the new development. There was no particular environmental issue at stake.
In a dispute between FWA and the operator of cafe over part of Upper Baracca, FAA took the side of the cafeteria operator for no valid environmental reason. Why they chose to support the café operator is anybody’s guess.
In an application for a gaming parlour at Senglea, they supported the argument put forward by some neighbours and yet they remained silent on the various gaming parlours opening all over Malta.
Each time they (mis)interpret planning policy to suit their agenda, claiming that their arguments are inspired by environmental concerns and when in fact they are driven by the narrow agenda of a few individuals.
Mepa officials jokingly ask for a receipt to confirm whether or not the FAA will present objections to an application.
The upper Barakka dispute has to be THE example of the FAA’s method.
Objecting to the reconstruction of an integral part of the battery, throwing mud on another NGO and distorting facts, refusing to admit to defending the owner’s interests isn’t on.
I can understand the owner, what I cannot fathom is why he chose to let himself be guided by Astrid’s bunch, making a fool of himself.
Heritage, my ass.
The House of the Four Winds development is sensitively located on the Valletta bastions. There will be alterations and new additions and yet FAA supported the development. They usually kick up a fuss against any development involving changes to an old building or which is located near a historic building. In this instance, they gave their support. Why?
We have arrived to the pathetic situation where the project architect seeks the endorsement of an incompetent group of people, who know nothing about the environment or conservation and who describe themselves as environmentalists – all this to pave the way for the MEPA permit to be issued.
Pajjiz tal-biki.
Making the application process subject to a group of individuals who are accountable to no-one is a recipe for abuse.
Astrid was squealing on ONE news tonight again about the issue. The old codger who runs the Ramblers’group was also on ONE later on, with a running commentary on the Olympics.
Unfortunately, there are people who still believe that The Times is the most authoritative voice.
The audit officer is not as ‘perfect’ as these NGOs make him out to be.
http://www.independent.com.mt/news.asp?newsitemid=98988
Dear Daphne, I would hve liked commenting on what you write, but knowing that lately you have refrained from printing my comments, I will restrict myself to the following, hoping that you might print.
[Daphne – Silvio, I don’t upload your comments when they are thoroughly inappropriate, like your comment about why bother with white slavery when all the girls nowadays are up for it. Can you please try to be sensible.]
I would have thought that you would be the first to condem what happened to Mr. Falzon. I thought that you would defend the right of anyone to expose shortcomings,coming from whatever source.
I was surprised to see you picking on the NGOs who expressed their unapproval to this cowardly act of suppressing criticism. I’m sure you would label it as facism if it had come from other sources.
[Daphne – Silvio, I trust you read my column in The Malta Independent on Sunday today? I consider middle-aged and elderly men who whine and sulk and betray confidences in public to be utterly despicable, and I just can’t bear the ‘pity me’ attitude which would be a cause for shame anywhere outside the southern Mediterranean. That indicates a weakness of character which in itself raises doubts about the person’s motivation and fitness for the job. As for the NGOs – they’re pathetic. Not a single one among them with any proper credibility.]
I can assure you that your column is my first read on Sunday. I went over today’s thoroughly and all I can say that it is very well written though I do not agree with the contents.
I agree with you that to betray cofidences in public is utterly despicable, but here we are not talking of confidences but on bringing to the attention of us poor mortals to irregularities and possibly corruption.
As regards the uploading or not of my comments, I accept the fact that it’s your blog and it is your perogative to decide what to upload and what to discard, all I can say is what to you might seem unsensible might not be so to others and of course vice versa.
Disapproval not unapproval, Silvio.
@Stacey
Many thanks for pointing out my mistake.
I really don’t know where this country of ours would be if it didn’t have people like you.
It’s persons like you who make a country great.
Thanks once again. I now feel secure knowing that there are people of such high calibre to guide us and correct us when we are wrong.
Keep up the good work; your country needs you.
Can kindly you do us a big favour? Remove that horrible picture of Inspector Gadget.
1. I can’t bear his facial expression especially his eyes.
2. What’s that spot in the midst of his lips?
[Daphne – It’s a link to a blog.]
Is the spot the link to the blog? :)
[Daphne – You can click anywhere on his face.]
One hell of an ugly, scary dude.
Seems like Mr Falzon is the most recent candidate for the “”Ragel Bikkej tas-Sena” award.
Sure, the Ramblers Association is an environmental association – they are constantly campaigning in favour of preservation of the countryside, access to paths and to historical remains there, like tas-Simblija and the public Roman remains that Tancred Tabone, then Chairman of the Water Services Corporation, had enclosed inside his villa.
As for the Baroque buildings in Sliema, I see that you, Daphne are as limited as your followers. Don’t you remember how the very architect who had claimed that house to be British period, had suddenly clammed up and was never heard of again the moment Astrid Vella published those maps of buildings in Sliema taken from the Albert Ganado map collection and dating back to 1728 (slightly before the British period I believe).
Surely even you, with your limited knowledge in spite of your degree in Anthropolgy, know that the Msida Gate recently scheduled by MEPA by Muscat’s Garage, marks the spot where the main road once led up to the present Savoy hill, and down Rudolph Street to High Street, and was known in the Knights period as Strada Reale. Everyone knows that the Imperial was once a knights’ hunting lodge, but this probably went way over your head, buried in bucolic Bidnija.
[Daphne – I don’t have a degree in anthropology, Mr Attard. I happen to have been born and bred in the very parish, and my family were among the first of Sliema’s ‘residents’ – in the 19th century, when it was a summer resort for people who lived in Valletta.]
“Don’t you remember how the very architect who had claimed that house to be British period, had suddenly clammed up and was never heard of again the moment Astrid Vella published those maps …..”
This is typical of FAA’s lobsided way of thinking. Let me try to make it simple for you Joseph Attard.
Consider this scenario. I declare that Astrid Vella is an idiot. Astrid Vella ignores me and does not reply. Is the absence of a denial proof that she is an idiot?
By the same token, what the architect did or did not do is no proof of anything.
@Jozef and MC. Are you all so dim that you can’t see that the cases you mention all have one thing in common – residents’ rights?
If you look at FAA’s website you’ll see: “Flimkien ghal Ambjent Ahjar (FAA) was established in 2006; it is a non-governmental organisation, committed to preserving Malta and Gozo’s architectural and rural heritage as well as to ensuring a healthy quality of life.” And FAA “has brought about changes in favour of residents’ rights in M’Scala, B’bugia, Sliema Attard, Lija, Mellieha and Gozo.”
FAA made it clear that in the Barrakka case its stand is keeping the bastions accessible to the general public, when that so-called NGO FWA takes over the Upper Barrakka for its events for which it earns a princely 3,500 Euros per booking.
And by the way, given that none of you bothered to read the articles properly, you will see that in “misinterpreting policy” on this case, FAA happens to be echoing MEPA’s Cultural Heritage Advisory Committee.
Instead of always picking on FAA, why don’t you look into some of the other NGOs you mention here, which are in violation of the NGO law, since they have not deposited their accounts and statements with the Commissioner of Voluntary Organisations for the last few years.
At Villa Fieres the dispute was whether the windows opened by residents over the properties of third parties were legal.
There was no fundamental environmental issue at stake. The issue was about the quality of life of a small group of residents who, incidentally, had trespassed on the property rights of others by opening windows.
FAA wrongly depicted the issue as concerning the quality of life of all residents of St. Julians.
By using environmental arguments to fight the cause of a small group of individuals, FAA is doing a disservice to the environmental agenda.
The same can be said for every contentious development issue in which FAA gets itself involved.
That’s not the point.
The point was made by MC above, repeated here, with my edits in brackets:
“We have arrived to the pathetic situation where (a) project (requires) the endorsement of an incompetent group of people, who know (very little) about the environment or conservation (or possess any specialised knowledge) and who describe themselves as environmentalists..”
In the case of the Barrakka – the FAA are against simply because they are – and because they have found justification for their stand via some Mepa guideline, which guideline was certainly not intended to address that particular situation.
In so doing – objecting simply because some persons in their movement are objecting – they are, very presumptuously, professing to be more knowledgeable about military history and heritage than the FWA, which as we all know (or should) is manned by the next best thing to experts on the matter.
So, back to the beginning – the uninformed are obstructing potentially positive development, so is that a good thing or not?
Should it be a completely non-medical person like me who decides on whether someone should have surgery or not, to treat a condition? That would be the best analogy.
As for your “…when that so-called NGO FWA takes over the Upper Barrakka for its events for which it earns a princely 3,500 Euros per booking. ”
Since you are intent on causing offence: If the FWA is a “so-called NGO” with all the derogatory implications of that statement, then FAA is just a bunch of poodles. And as for the “princely 3,500 Euros per booking” – that sum, I presume, would be recycled towards investing in Malta’s heritage, the results of such recycling being amply evident.
It is pretty standard practice that such organisations utilise properties in their stewardship to provide funds to enable these organisations to reach their worthy goals, with as little contribution from the taxpayer as possible. If this is a bad thing, then feel free to dig deep into your pockets and finance them yourself.
In the meanwhile, if the FAA supports unworthy causes, then it is doing more harm than good.
Picking on the FAA is easier. Gaffes, contradictory statements and the toffee nosed attitude of a dead poets society make it the perfect object of ridicule.
Other NGO’s don’t accept cheques amounting to over 10,000 euros from people living in a concrete block of flats objecting to an application for another block next door. Or abandon the arguments for citizen’s rights as soon as these opt for a settlement with the developer. Especially when the arguments chosen are based on principle.
There’s a blatant discrepancy in the position you’ve taken, maybe because rumours are rampant. Why didn’t the FAA object to the idiocy next to Lija Belvedere?
How, and this was THE clue, does a heritage warrior manage to mistake which building in Qormi is an arsenal?
Other NGO’s tend to stick to their core business. With the FAA it’s utter confusion. You will tell me what Astrid proposed for the theatre under the guise of being an expert in semiotics.
What I got was Barry’s neoclassical essay, followed by Trevisan’s computer render of its apology, to drive home, if you please, Valletta’s ‘baroque character’.
She actually thinks Neoclassicism, a fad if there ever was one, should surmount the contemporary idiom simply because she can’t see the morphema, make that function, for the trees, erm columns.
And to hell with geometry as the right to architecture.
I don’t see Fondazzjoni Wirt Artna or Din L-art Helwa doing the same, too busy doing their bit presumably. Yet THIS ‘so called’ NGO has the gall and the brazen faced cheek to disrupt the good work and sour the atmosphere.
I just yearn to see her expression when Piano’s monomateric iteration of Ferrara’s palazzo dei diamanti, sitting astride the staircase evoking the old gate, greets her through the restored walls. Preferably in a late afternoon light compassed by the algebraic sum.
Maybe, just maybe, she will understand there’s a future we deserve.
Jozef, what is wrong with an NGO accepting a donation of 10,000 euros?
They need to cover their expenses. You know, making an objection costs money; the postage stamps, the petrol to go to the MEPA Board meeting to make a nuisance of oneself. And what about the electricity for the computer, the air-conditioning and the lights for the long hours working into the night?
Even if the NGO members are doing this on a voluntary basis, they also need to cover personal expenses like deodorants and make-up.
What is wrong with an NGO receiving a donation for its services?
@ Joseph Attard – how long have you been living where you say you are?
See this http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20110506/letters/Historic-Fawwara-Gate-inG-ira-some-clarifications
S – l – o – w – l – y
1. The correct name is Fawwara Gate. The gate marks the boundary line of the territory called ‘Fawwara’. Another gate (demolished in the 1980s) marked that of Ta’ Xbiex. Both owned by the barons Testaferrata (Testaferrata Moroni Viani).
2. No road ever ran through Fawwara Gate. It was just an ornamental gate which has never been dismantled or moved,
3. The first road to lead up to Savoy Hill was Rue D’Argens..
4. As for your “Strada Reale” in the knights’ period, next to a “knights’ hunting lodge” please humour us.
I wasn’t aware the Knights had access to steel T beam sections to roof their hunting lodges and wrought iron railings for their grand staircases.
And wouldn’t that require acres of estate all around? Oh dear.
@ Joseph Attard
It beggars belief that anyone would rely on an old obscure map, without any notable detail, to prove that a small house in a narrow alley was actually in existence in 1728.
Joseph Attard, you are beyond redemption.
The manner a building is constructed provides a good indication as to the time it was built. The manner of construction of the supposed Baroque house was certainly much later than 1728.
FAA took many photos of the house before it was demolished. Joseph Attard, can you please provide one photo of a feature of the house which could be remotely described as Baroque?
It was the two squat columns aged by the salt ridden air currents funnelled up the alley that got to them, looked so old and romantic.
You are all such a bunch of pathetic nerds to be so threatened by one small NGO that you are making fools of yourselves in your attempt to discredit FAA. I will just take a few of your points, not because they can’t all be rebutted, but simply because, unlike you lot, I have a life and have better things to do. Anyway after a bit of digging through the papers and various sites I feel ready to reply.
@mc – don’t you guys even read the papers before you open your mouths? “The issue was about the quality of life of a small group of residents who, incidentally, had trespassed on the property rights of others by opening windows.” The papers had reported that both of the whole site of the two blocks was owned by none other than Bertu Mizzi, so the windows were opened by one and the same developer, on his own site. The plans have been produced and are all legal.
@ el bandido guapo – didn’t you read the Times blogs which revealed that most of the restoration of FWA’s old premises is carried out by the Government’s Restoration Unit and paid for by RU, MTA, Transport Authority, Good Causes Fund, Ministry of Infrastructure. You name it, they’re all there. Nothing wrong in that but don’t come with that myth that FWA invests its 3,500 Euros a week on restoring “Malta’s heritage, the results of such recycling being amply evident.” So now can you tell me what that so-called NGO does with its funds? Oh and by the way, their Chairman’s princely salary is coming out of Govt funds too, ie you are all paying for it!
@ David – you are obviously not keeping up with your reading about Fawwara Gate: See Times: http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20120616/local/conservation.424458 “Known to some as Sliema Gate, the arch was built in 1796 when the road from Msida to Sliema was widened on the initiative of Fra Nicolaus Butius, as can be read from the now severely eroded inscription.” Now if nothing existed in Sliema before Daphne’s family came to live there in the mid-19th Century, why would Fra Butius have widened this gate in 1796?
[Daphne – I think David knows a little more about the subject than you do, Mr Attard. Now try very hard to explain why there isn’t a single building in Sliema which predates the mid-19th century, including its churches. The only reason why anyone would have needed to use a road to get to the area in the 18th century would have been to reach, by land, the fort on Tigne Point or the tower which gave the road its name. Apart from a few random fishermen, the first people to build in Sliema were those who wanted to get away from Valletta in the summer, and before the mid-19th century and the definitive end of piracy it wasn’t safe to do that.]
Xdcc and Jozef: So you’re going to tell me that the British built with soil and ‘mazzkann’ between their three-foot walls like that house was built? Let alone the corbel balcony on the side that was typical of old St Ursula Street houses, not British houses in Sliema built, as Jozef mentions, with steel beams and iron railings. Jozef, you’re digging yourself deeper into the ground with every comment. This house had stone staircases throughout, and you’re even stupider than I thought if you didn’t realise that those columns were later accretions.
@ Josef – You claim “Other NGO’s don’t accept cheques amounting to over 10,000 euros from people living in a concrete block of flats objecting to an application for another block next door.” I have never heard of this happening to any NGO. Are you going to prove that by naming names or at least the case, or are you going to sit there, inventing lies without substantiating them?
You are all such a sad bunch, and the fact that you are so ready to invest so much time and energy in discrediting Astrid Vella and FAA simply proves how effective they have been and how they are impacting your own private or political agendas. Long may they continue.
[Daphne – It proves nothing of the sort, Mr Attard. It is evidence that there are some people around who are not prepared to put up with ill-informed attention-seekers merely on the basis that they are loud, as persistent as Asian tiger mosquitoes and friendly with Super One.]
Daphne, you call others presumptuous, and yet for all your claims, you haven’t been able to rebut a single one of my replies, and your only comment is so wrong, it’s laughable. First of all, even schoolchildren would know that to reach Tigne Fort, the Tower or any of their seashore defences, the Knights used sea, and not land transport (read your Stephen Spiteri my dear).
[Daphne – They used boats, but they would also have used land-based transport. Why else bother with a road? Nobody else lived there. “Even schoolchildren know…”: hardly.]
Which means that Fra Butius really did widen that gate for improved access by Sliema residences, as indicated in Albert Ganado’s maps.
[Daphne – False logic, and a deducation based on too many assumptions. There are some benefits in having an honours degree in archaeology. This is one of them.]
As for your assertion, “there isn’t a single building in Sliema which predates the mid-19th century, including its churches.” You’re wrong (yet) again, as the most basic research would have revealed MEPA’s scheduling information: “After the [French] occupation, and not wanting their new church to experience the same fate as their first church, the Sliema residents wanted to opt for an alternative site. The land on which the Chapel stands today was property donated by Giovanna Salvaloco. The church was finished and consecrated around May 1804 and fell under the Birkirkara Parish. Until 1855 when Stella Maris Church was built this was the only Church that could be found in the Sliema area.”
[Daphne – Ah, the fishermen’s chapel. The very building which proves that you’re wrong. The chapel that stood alone on the hill, completely visible from the sea, as a sort of ‘prayer station’ for random fishermen and sailors, hence the name ‘Stella Maris’, in much the same way that the Greek islands are littered with isolated chapels. Hallina, trid.]
So, contrary to what you claim, there were both residents and a church, well before the mid 19th Century. In fact the Bishop’s summer house dating from that early period still stands to this day, but I won’t go into that as I don’t want to expose your ignorance as you wouldn’t know about it, even though it’s only stone’s throw from where you grew up.
[Daphne – Madonna, how exhausting you are. The names of the streets of Stella Maris parish ALONE should tell you just how old those streets and houses are. The ‘oldest’ name is Luzju (luzio) Street, exactly where I grew up, which was named after one of the original fishermen who had a hut there. The rest tell you everything you need to know: Graham Street, Milner Street, Howard Street, Amery Street, Windsor Terrace, Victoria Avenue…]
Oh and by the way, no news about that mythical 10,000 Euro donation yet? Someone must have been sniffing something when they said that?
@ Joseph Attard
Your first point (” http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20120616/local/conservation ” and astrid vella’s comment “the gate marked the beginning of the road to Sliema “) :-
1. Go to http://maps.google.com.mt/maps and learn how to draw lines.
2. Find the gate on Satellite mode and look upwards towards Sliema.
3. Look at the field behind Muscat’s. Can you see a road from the gate? – No.
4. Trace a straight line all the way up to Sphinx pastizzerija. Can you see any signs of a road? – No.
5. There never was a road running through the gate.
Your second point (“the arch was built in 1796 when the road from Msida to Sliema was widened on the initiative of Fra Nicolaus Butius, as can be read from the now severely eroded inscription. Now if nothing existed in Sliema before Daphne’s family came to live there in the mid-19th Century, why would Fra Butius have widened this gate in 1796?”) :-
1. For your elucidation the surname is Buzi. “Butius” is a latinized form as was common in those times.
2. The tablet doesn’t say Buzi widened the GATE. It says he widened the ROAD. Just stop pseudo-intellectualizing and read properly.
3. Walk onto Rue D’Argens and see that the Testaferratas still have property on either side of Rue D’Argens.
4. Read the inscription closely. It says Fra Niccolo’ Buzi widened the road in the land holdings of Baron Testaferrata (‘Viam ex praedis Baronis Testaferrata, Amplificatem Fr. Nicolaus Butius’).
5. It’s pretty obvious the inscription is talking about Rue D’Argens and the first road to lead up to Savoy Hill was none other than Rue D’Argens.
Your third point (“You are all such a bunch of pathetic nerds to be so threatened by one small NGO that you are making fools of yourselves in your attempt to discredit FAA”):-
1. We really don’t have to try too hard to discredit FAA “the ngo”.
2. Just see above.
Your fourth point (“I will just take a few of your points, not because they can’t all be rebutted, but simply because, unlike you lot, I have a life and have better things to do. Anyway after a bit of digging through the papers and various sites I feel ready to reply.”):-
1. My initial point exactly: – By your own admission, you were talking out of your bottom from the very outset.
Q.E.D.
FAA is not an environmental organisation. It is a group of people who intervene in disputes involving planning applications. The reasons why they choose to object to project A, and not a similar project B, remain mysterious.
On occasions, they resort to arguments which are silly, unreasonable and sometimes deceitful. The claim that Ghar il-Lenbi house was baroque is a classic example of FAA’s deceit.
They attack anyone who disagrees with them or who gets in their way, as they are doing now with FWA. It is shameful that this group of individuals, who purport to be an environmental organisation, attack FWA which has done so much for the conservation of our heritage.
They are given undue attention by the media in spite of their dubious competence, and even more dubious credibility.
They abused and manipulated the Office of the Auditor. Their objection to the replacement of the Audit officer is not about the integrity of Joe Falzon or what is in the best interest of the environment. It is about the loss of a convenient ally.